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Making social housing work: a TCHC success story

George St. is an unlikely place for a success story. The stretch of road on the downtown east side is better known for its thriving drug trade, derelict properties and crowds of homeless men congregating outside the Seaton House shelter.

But at one George St. address, the tide has been turning for the better. Over the past three years the Toronto Community Housing Corporation has been transforming one troubled midrise by making investments in its physical structure and its people. Once considered so unlivable that TCHC clients refused to be placed there, the agency now boasts it’s the most improved property in its entire portfolio.

On a recent Monday afternoon, two workers were painting the entrance of the five-storey building at 291 George St. a hopeful shade of blue. Inside, floors were gleaming, and the lobby had been swept clean. A police officer walking the halls joked with tenants carrying plates full of food from a meal program run out of the community room.

It’s a remarkable change from years past. The 132 bachelor apartments almost exclusively house single men, many of whom struggle with addictions and mental health problems. According to building superintendent Ricardo Rodriguez, when he started work four years ago, drug dealers preying on vulnerable tenants had taken over several apartments to ply their trade. People broke into the building’s laundry rooms to use drugs, and it was not unusual to find vagrants sleeping in stairwells, or even in the closet-like rooms that house the garbage chutes. Needles and condoms littered the halls.

“Really, really bad,” Rodriguez said, as he led a reporter on a tour of the property. “You wouldn’t recognize this place.”

The building’s stunning turnaround is the result of a “two-pronged” approach that began in 2012, which focused on improving security as well as increasing social supports, according to TCHC spokesperson Lisa Murray.

As part of the project, the agency replaced all of the tenants’ electronic security fobs — some of which had been nabbed by people who didn’t live in the building — and installed security cameras and repaired all exterior doors to keep out troublemakers. In total, the agency has spent about $719,000 on repairs and maintenance at the midrise since 2013, and also hired a 24-hour security guard and a cleaner.

Just as important as the physical upgrades was the addition of on-site social supports. With $300,000 in annual funding from the province, two social service agencies, Fred Victor and Houselink, set up in the building’s lobby. There is at least one full-time staff member on-site Monday to Friday to assist tenants with legal problems or refer them to medical, addiction, and mental health services. Currently, more than half the tenants are engaged with the agencies.

Toronto police Const. Julie Rice, with 51 Division, says that before the improvements, the building used to generate about 600 9-1-1 calls every year, and cops routinely attended the property to deal with assaults, guns, break-ins and drug dealing. Now, there are only 200 calls per year, most for more minor incidents.

“This is night and day,” Rice said of the revamped building. “There’s no garbage, there’s no needles, there’s no drug dealing … I love what they’ve done here.”

Glenn Sealy, a tenant who has lived at the building since 2006, sounded thrilled about the changes.

“This is from rags to riches,” he said with a laugh as he waited in the lobby for the elevator. He used to worry about bringing visitors over, but now invites his grandson from the U.S. to stay with him.

Like other tenants who spoke to the Star, Sealy gives much of the credit for improvements to the social workers and the hardworking superintendent, Rodriguez, whom he describes as the “messiah” of the building. “They helped uplift this community very well,” Sealy said.

Murray, the TCHC spokesperson, insists that tenants also deserve praise. Since the building was cleaned up, they’ve kept it shipshape. There is now an active tenant committee and residents have performed work such as planting gardens and landscaping.

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“It’s really become a strong community,” Murray said. “They’ve taken back the building.”

The approach at 291 George has been so successful that TCHC is already working to implement it at about a half-dozen other high-needs buildings with similar problems. But Murray cautions that it’s not a panacea for most of the agency’s developments, whose residents don’t have the same acute needs as 291 George’s single tenants but still struggle with crime and deteriorating properties.

TCHC would also likely be unable to replicate the social programs the province is paying for at 291 George across its entire portfolio, unless the organization found an additional source of funding.

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